other memories for your family every timeit is pulled off the shelf. It reminds me ofhow every Thanksgiving we go to my wife’sgrandparents’ house and out come thefamily albums. There’s no TV, no phones—weare totally disconnected and caught up inlooking through past memories.”He continues: “While print might besaid to be dying, I have built my Nostalgialine around the premise that photos arenot meant to be on your Facebook wall butrather on your own walls of your home andin your albums.”The photographer constantly referenceshis album line in his conversations withclients, even during his engagementsessions with couples, he says.

Hill also incorporates videos on his site
( robertjhill.com/albums) to dive deep into
his process with a behind-the-scenes look.

Take one couple’s album, for example:
”Margot and Lukas,” he says in the video, “got
married in Burgundy, France, in a 12th-century
monastery, and the breathtaking location
definitely merited the maxed-out album they
chose”—a 12 x 12, 40-spread, 80-page book,
very thick, with a same-size duplicate to ship
out to their parents in France.

THE PROCESS

A week out from the wedding, Hill says heemails his couple to touch base one last timebefore the wedding, and within a week or twoafter the wedding, he sends an email (anotherConnection Point!) saying the images aredone. “We set up a meeting to go over thealbum, then I design everything in Fundyv7 Software. They have an online prooferthat creates a digital album my clients canpreview, so the first thing they see after thewedding are 40 to 50 images in a slideshowthat fits their wedding as well as my brand.

Watching them see their images for the firsttime is a content reminder as to what our jobsare for. It often happens online through avideo chat as my clients are from all over, andthey breakdown and get incredibly emotionalas they go through their memories from theirbig day.”Hill asks his couple during that time whichspreads they want to keep or toss and utilizesan album credit in his pricing: “A maxed-outalbum is $5,250 and my couples typically startwith a $1,000 to $1,500 credit. He says heover-designs an album to 45 or 50 spreads soa couple has options but also has to deleteimages to get down to the max spreadsallowed. “They have to remove five to tenspreads as I can only print up to 40, and it isdownright painful to delete images,” he says.

“Couples get seven days to swap out photos
to perfect their album to their liking and then
they receive it in the mail within two months.

“I always tell them three, but that’s just so I can
over-deliver one last time.”

THE LOOK OF LOVE

Over time, Hill has perfected his album line
to be even more aligned with his brand.

Everything he does comes down to three
words: relationships change everything. “If
there is a secret sauce, this is it. Be intentional
with those who step in front of your camera.”

ABOVE: Hill has exclusively used Luxe Leather
albums from Red Tree but now also offers
some of their latest distressed leathers.

BRAND-BUILDING IN PRINT

Whether it’s a wedding in Portland, Bali,
Iceland, the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain
or even Belize, Hill says he gets booked
consistently to travel all over the globe for
the same reasons: his style and brand, his
niche albums (more on those later) and for
the relationships he fosters over time.

“I’m incredibly brand-centric,” he says,
“and I am all about the power of print.

From the moment I talk to my couples in
our initial conversation, I am focusing on
the relationship and intention between us
and always planting the seed about how
important albums are for our families.”

THE STORY WE TELL

“I’ve literally branded my albums as if I aman album company,” Hill explains. “And thestories we tell are the starting point for theproducts we sell.”His album line, Nostalgia (which is asub-brand of his Robert J. Hill brand), is ahandcrafted collection he has customizedthrough Red Tree Albums in Louisville,Kentucky, and is used, he says, to give afamily history to his clients. “Nostalgia isa memoir that will age alongside you andwill have a unique place in your family. Itis not just a book of images from the past,